Tag Archives: Maryland

In Search Of The Father

Leave a reply

My sister and I turned onto the short dead-end road and parked the car.

“It’s over there,” she said pointing to a small overgrown patch of land.

I opened the door amazed my search for my Caple ancestry had brought me to this tiny family cemetery in Carroll County, Maryland.

I last left the story in search Caple ancestry with the discoveries that my great grandfather, Samuel H. Caple’s, father was Jacob and in turn his father was, Samuel Caple Junior of Richland County, Ohio. I had learned both men had roots in Maryland. Now I was in search of Samuel Junior’s parents.

Over the next few weeks, I spent my spare time, pouring over the census records of Maryland for Caple and Caples. I concluded Samuel Caple of Baltimore County, Maryland (now Carroll County) was my most likely candidate. Could he be the same Samuel Caple I’d found in references to the Revolutionary War?

Back when I had first started my Caple quest a cousin, also researching the family, mentioned  she had corresponded, via the  internet, with a woman who was a descendant of this Samuel. At the time we knew nothing to connect us, but now we did.

I got her phone number and called. She lived in Maryland and knew of the Samuel I spoke. She was a descendant through one of his daughters.

“Yes,” she  told me,”there were three sons.”

One named Samuel born in 1783 (the right time frame to be my Samuel). The other two, William, born in 1784 and  Jacob born. in 1790.

Her family lore stated, Samuel Caple Junior had moved to Ohio after a disagreement with his brother William over slavery, and was never heard from again. A story  that sounded much like the story my grandfather had told. This had to be the right family.

She also told me Samuel Senior had been buried in the family cemetery which still existed on a portion of his land. And there were family stories that said Mary Cole might be a Native American or maybe it was Samuel Senior’s mother who was the Native American. Then again, she said, they might just be stories.

But she added, “there is a problem. Samuel and his wife Mary Cole didn’t marry  until 1793, 10 years after their first son was born.”

Earlier researchers had assumed Samuel Caple Senior had previously been married  and the  boys were from this marriage. But a a new document had been found. One showing Samuel and his wife, Mary Cole, had appeared in Court on Nov. 9, 1809 and swore the three boys were Samuel’s and that he wished for them to carry the Caple name and have the rights to inheritance.

The record helped establish my Samuel belonged to this group but it also spelled the beginning of my biggest genealogical puzzle.

Why had Samuel and Mary Cole waited 10 years, after the birth of their first son, to marry?  Who were Samuel and Mary’s parents and was Native American ancestry part of their story?

To be continued…..

Cole to Caple

 

Samuel Caple Senior -Revolutionary War Patriot Dies

Leave a reply

 

Writing Prompt 2- Family History Challenge – Write a modern day obituary for one of our ancestors.

              SAMUEL CAPLE REVOLUTIONARY WAR PATRIOT DIES Samuel Caple Senior, age 96, of Carroll County Maryland, passed away Sept 12, 1846.

Born May 12, 1752 in Anne Arundel County, Maryland, Samuel was well known in his neighborhood and respected by all. He took the Oath of Fidelity and Support on March 1778 and served in the company of Capt. Stephen Gill, Regiment of Col. Gist, Select Militia of Baltimore, MD, Upper Gunpowder Battalion during the Revolutionary War. He spent his entire life never living more than 20 miles from his birth place.

He was preceded in death by his wife Mary Cole Caple who passed away in 1836. He is survived by his children, Samuel of Ohio, William Janelle (Margaret), Jacob (Ruth Ann), Mary, Sally, Nancy (Wagers), Matilda (Flater), Sarah Ellen (Edmonson), Hyantha (Blizzard) and many grandchildren.

He will be buried in the Caple Family Cemetery loacated at 1824 Deer Park Road, Carroll County, Maryland.

 

IN SEARCH OF JACOB CAPLE’S Father

2016-02-22 20.41.47 (2)

Jacob Caple, born about 1816, Carroll County, Maryland

Synopsis:  Through family stories and my Great Grandfather, Samuel Hugh Caple’s Civil War pension records, I had discovered Samuel H. Caple was born in 1845 in Knox County, Ohio. His parents were Jacob Caple and Sarah Garey.  Jacob had been born in Maryland but married in Knox county, Ohio in 1841. Around 1857 Jacob had moved his family to Monroe, Jasper county, Iowa. Land documents there, led me to believe, he was connected to Samuel Caple of Richland County, Ohio. Census records in Ohio revealed that a Samuel Caple had lived there and had also been born in Maryland. He was the right age to be Jacob’s father.  Now I needed a will or other document to prove a connection

 

IN SEARCH FOR JACOB CAPLE’S FATHER

Shortly after mailing my request for a will for Samuel Caple of Ohio, my husband and I visited a used bookstore. As I gazed at a shelf of fiction, my husband rounded the corner.

“I found something for you to look at.” he said.

He handed me a thick book of  genealogical queries. He pointed to an entry –  “CAPLE, SAMUEL.”  A Daisy Lee Grimes was looking for more information about her great-grandfather, Samuel Caple, born in Maryland and who had lived in Ohio. I was fairly certain this was the same Samuel Caple I was looking for.  I would have called her right then and there except the book was from the 1940’s, it was unlikely that now in the 1990’s, Daisy was still alive.

The following week I perused the shelf containing family genealogies at my local library. I knew there was no way I was going to find a Caple genealogy, still I looked. My eyes scanned the titles for surnames beginning with C – “History And Genealogy Of The Caples Family And Allied Families Of Maryland.” Surprised, I pulled the book off the shelf.  Could this be my family, Jacob was from Maryland.

I opened the thin, hand bound book. It had been written in the 1960’s. The Caple’s in this book were from the earliest days of colonial Maryland. I still had a lot of work to do before I could discover if we connected to this family. But how had this hand typed copy from Maryland ended up in a Tacoma, WA library?

The following week I went to the Seattle National Regional Archives to work on another branch of my family tree. I was re-winding a microfilm when the archives announced it would be closed in 30 minutes. I gathered my things and went to slip the film back into its place in a file cabinet. Bent over, I glanced sideways, the words – CAPLE, SAMUEL – jumped out at me.  It was the first entry for a drawer full of Revolutionary War pension files.  Why was I suddenly finding the name Caple everywhere?

Never mind the archive was about to close, I had to see what was on it. I hastily threaded the microfilm onto the machine. I scrolled forward, the file was long. Quickly I skimmed, the old, difficult to read, cursive writing. Fortunately the pages deemed to be the best source of genealogical facts had been placed at the beginning of the file. This Samuel Caple had been born in Maryland. He hadn’t mentioned children by name but did say he had sons. And since he was born in 1752, he could easily be Samuel Caple of Ohio’s father. But it was too soon to jump to such conclusions.  I left hoping someday I would have reason to return and inspect this film in detail, in the meantime I had to prove or disprove Jacob was the son of Samuel Caple in Ohio. Only then could I begin to look for a link for someone in Maryland. Now more than ever I was anxious to find Jacob’s father.

On a rainy day a few weeks later, I pulled a thin envelope postmarked Ohio out of my mailbox. It looked much too thin to contain the information I wanted. With shaking hands I ripped the envelope open and pulled out the  will for Samuel Caple of Richland County, Ohio.  I began to read the difficult to decipher writing ; fingers crossed it would contain Jacob’s name.

Who was Samuel?

Leave a reply

It’s been a while since I wrote about the discoveries I made with my Caple family history, so I am including a brief synopsis of what I have written thus far before moving onto the next chapter.

According to my Grandfather, his father Samuel Hugh Caple and had fought in the Civil War. From Samuel’s Civil War pension papers I learned he had been born in Ohio, his parents were Jacob and Sarah Geary Caple.  While in Monroe my aunt had copied some deed we assumed were for Samuel Hugh Caple. But on closer inspection I noticed the the facts didn’t jibe.  The deeds seemed to be for different Samuel, one who lived in Richland county, Ohio.

—————————————————————————————————————————–Family known so far: Grandfather-William Roy Caple b. 1885 -1971, Great Grandfather- Samuel Hugh Caple 1845-1920, GG Grandfather Jacob Caple 1816- after 1872?  2015-05-12 19.13.49

WHO WAS THIS SAMUEL CAPLE?

After discovering the possibilty another Samuel Caple might be connected to the family I paid a visit to the local “Family History Library” run by the LDS church. There I was met by a friendly volunteer who suggested I start my search with the IGI index.

I typed in Samuel Hugh Caple. Up popped his name along with his parent’s Jacob and Sarah Garey Caple, his first wife Polly Sumpter and their children Milo and Minnie. Information I already had.

Next the volunteer guided me to look in the 1860 census for a Jacob Caple in Iowa. Armed with a page number from the census index book, I soon was whirling through microfilm until I came listing I wanted.

Fairview township, Jasper county, Iowa, PO Monroe, 1860

  • Jacob -age 43, born in Maryland, occupation Carriage maker
  • Sarah – age 38, keeping house, born in Pennsylavania
  • William – age 18, born in Ohio
  • Samuel- age 15, born in Ohio
  • Mary E.- age 11-born in Ohio
  • Anna Bell,- age 8 born in Ohio
  • John W.- age 6 born in  Ohio
  • Ida -age 2 born in Iowa.

With the H. added to Samuel’s name and his age I was sure I had the right family. Ida’s birth in Iowa placed the family’s move to the state to be around 1857.  So far everything matched the info my aunt and Samuel’s pension file gave. It was time to look in Ohio.

Since the children’s births indicated the family was living in Ohio in 1850 the LDS volunteer suggested I next search for Jacob in that census. It didn’t take long to find him:

Liberty township, Knox county, Ohio -1850.

  • Jacob Caple, age 34  born in Maryland, carriage maker
  • Sarah born in Pennsylvania,
  • William age 9, born in Ohio
  • Samuel H. age 6, born in Ohio
  • Mary Etta, age 1, born in Ohio.

They had to be my family. But the mystery of the Samuel Caple on the Iowa deeds still remained. If Jacob had POA, there had to be a connection.

Next I searched for a marriage record for Jacob and Sarah in the microfilm copies the library had on file. I found them but the record gave no parents names.

Next she suggested I look for a Samuel Caple in the 1850 census of Richland county. I was thrilled when I found one and he had both a wife named Francis and was old enough to be Jacob’s father.

Butler Township, Richland County, 1850 census

  • Samuel, born about 1782 in Maryland, age 68
  • wife Francis, age 32
  • Samuel, age 15 b. in Ohio
  • James, age 6, b. in Ohio
  • William, age 3 b. in Ohio

There was that name Samuel again. Now I had three of them. I recalled my grandfather saying his Dad always insisted he was Samuel Hugh Caple not just Samuel Caple. I wondered, was it because their was more than one Samuel in his family tree?

Next I checked for this Samuel of Richland county in the 1860 census.  Would he still be alive?

1860 census, Butler township, PO Shenandoah, Ohio

  • Samuel, age 77 born in MD
  • Frances age 40, born in PA
  • Samuel age 22, born in Ohio
  • James age 16.  born in Ohio.

Okay, if he  he was still alive in 1860 maybe he was still alive in 1867 , too.  He was certainly old enough to be Jacob’s parent but his wife wasn’t. Did Samuel perhaps remarry after Jacob’s mother died?

I could look for an earlier census for this Samuel Caple and in fact I did find him but before 1850 no spouse or children were listed by name. The 1840 census  would not help me prove or disprove this Samuel was Jacob’s father. For that I will need a will or some other document that might show the names of his children.

That night I composed and sent a letter to Richland county clerk’s office asking if they might have will on file for this Samuel.

In the meantime I decided to follow my aunt’s suggestion and call a cousin, also named Samuel, who lived locally. I had a lovely chat with his wife. Yes, they too,had been trying to discover the origination of the family. Unfortunately she had no new information to add. But she did have a computer.

Now this was 1993 and the internet was new. On a genealogygroup page someone from a Caple family in Maryland had contacted her. They had compared trees but found no matches. However the Maryland person mentioned a Samuel who was the son of the Revolutionary Samuel I’d found in the library book.  According to her, this Samuel had a disagreement with his brother over slavery and had moved north to Ohio.

The story seemed similar to the one my grandfather told. The one where the family had been from the south but sold the plantation and moved North over slavery. Could the Samuel on the deeds and in the Richland county, Ohio be the person my grandfather spoke of?  And if he was, could he be the same Samuel the person from Maryland spoke of?

Hopefully I would have some answers when I heard back from Richland County, Ohio. For now all I could do was wait.

A Visit With My Aunt Or Who Was This Samuel?

Leave a reply

After pouring through my great grandfather Samuel Hugh’s pension file I hungered to know more.  Samuel hadn’t lived in Caple, Oklahoma until he was over the age of 45.  Clearly my Caple family hadn’t begun there.  But where were they from and when did they first come to this country?  (Note: later I would learn Caple was a post office station named for the first post master William Caple Samuel’s brother William.)

I made arrangements to meet with my Aunt Iva. After the usual hugs and greetings she walked me into the dining room where a big cardboard box sat. Inside were an accumulation of old photos and papers my grandfather had saved.  She had never seen Samuel Hugh’s pension papers so we began with those.

She was not surprised that her Grandfather had been living in Monroe, Iowa during the Civil War. In fact she’d traveled to Monroe and Oklahoma.  Unfortunately, she’d found little to add to the story we already knew.  No graves has been found matching Samuel’s family.  However she had found graves for   wives and children of a Nimrod Caple. While we ruminated, on how hard it must have been to lose so many loved ones, we wondered who he was?  Were we related and if so, how?

At the court house she found deeds for Nimrod plus some for a Samuel Caple with Jacob Caple having  power of attorney to sell the property. We assumed the Samuel was his son Samuel Hugh Caple.  At the end of my visit she lent me the deeds to make copies.2015-05-12 19.17.42

That evening I  sat at  my kitchen table and re-examined the documents. The first deed was for property sold in 1863, the others were for 1867.  Both my aunt and I had assumed Jacob was selling land for his son while he was serving in the Iowa infantry in the civil war. But Samuel was only 18. Would someone so young have property to sell?  And why didn’t he take care of it himself in 1867? Then I noticed something else. The deeds said Samuel lived in in Richland county, Ohio not Jasper county, Iowa. And the wife was named Francis not Polly. And besides Samuel hadn’t married until 1868. The place, names and dates didn’t add up, this Samuel had to be someone else, but who and how were we connected to him?

2015-05-12 19.13.49